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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22569124">Bones.</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/valerian_valentine/pseuds/valerian_valentine'>valerian_valentine</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>February Prompts. [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Homestuck</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Bisexual Dave Strider, Gen, bones - Freeform</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 09:14:20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,639</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22569124</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/valerian_valentine/pseuds/valerian_valentine</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Jake and Dave talk while searching for bones.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Dave Strider/Karkat Vantas, Dirk Strider &amp; Dave Strider, Jake English &amp; Dave Strider</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>February Prompts. [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1620586</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>45</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Bones.</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>i wrote all of this in one day and read none of it so uh yeah</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Bones. Bones, the things holding our flesh and blood up, the things protecting some of our most vital organs, the things that make us move, the things we all end up being.. Bones. In the end, it’s all just bones in the ground. You can try to delay the process all you want but we all end up bones in the end.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dave knew this. He knew that in the end, he was just going to be bones and then nothing. That was life. It was also why he was in the woods, digging around in the mud with Jake.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Dave, old chum, I have no idea how you keep finding all these bones! I can’t seem to find them anywhere.” Jake complained, pouting like a hurt puppy. Jake was supposedly trying to find the ‘perfect’ bone to give Dirk.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Look around the bases of the trees and under bushes. Predators tend to drag their prey there to eat but you have to be careful cause sometimes shit sticks around and tries chomping your fingers off.” Dave warned, pulling his hand out of the mud, a wet suction noise interrupting the flow of conversation.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alrighty! Um, you won't tell Dirk about this, right? I really want it to be a surprise! I mean, I know that sometimes, you have to tell your brother! It is just the brotherly code but I hope you could possibly ignore the bro code for me? Just for this? See, I was hoping to make him a ring out of bone! It would be quite good, yes? Strong and willing to stand up to the elements with ease!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh, absolutely not. Jake, if you get him a ring, he’ll assume you’re proposing and I can’t let you do that to my bro, dude.” Dave advised, frowning at him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Huh? Why would he assume I'm proposing? We are the best of bros, there is no way he’d assume that!” Jake assumed, waving his hand around carelessly, mud flying everywhere.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Jake, I like giving you the benefit of the doubt but I really think you are as pretty as you are stupid.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thank.. You..?” Jake questioned, smiling a bit as he tilted his head in confusion.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Dude, just don’t make him a ring. He’ll assume you're taking romantic action given y’alls… History and he’ll dig himself into a gigantic anxiety hole from all his over analyzing and end up doing something really dumb like isolating himself for a good year then killing himself. Because that’s what he does, dude. It’s fucking Dirk we’re talking about. Just get him a skull, if you can find it. If not, a plain bone. That’ll be fucking cool as all hell.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I thought hell was hot?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Depends on which religion you're lookin’ at dude.” Dave shrugged and went back to digging through the mud, knowing he’d spend the next five hours cleaning his nails and hands.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hmm… What if I made him a necklace? Oh! He’s been really into earrings lately! Should I make him some earrings?” Jake questioned, yanking a big root out of the way, sending mud flying, some landing in Dave's hair. Yeah, now he understood why Dirk hated bone digging with Jake.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Earrings would be cool. Maybe use some vertebrae.” He responded, knowing for a fact that Dirk hated vertebrae and specifically told him multiple times that he hated the thought of bones brushing against his neck. “Hell, use some teeth.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ohh, that sounds so cool! Think he’d enjoy it?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yup, absolutely. Hey, why do you wanna get him a gift anyway?” He questioned, lightly shooing away a toad who hopped out of his way quickly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well… I wanna get back to being close buds with him. Don’t tell the girls this, but it's getting kinda tiring hanging out with them all the time and not being able to do man things, ya know? None of them wanna go running around in the woods with me, looking’ for an adventure! I mean, no offense, Dave, but you are a good lad to hang out with but..” Jake trailed off, his weirdly big eyebrows furrowing in frustration.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You miss him?” He suggested quietly, watching Jake try to find words for his feelings.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah.. I mean, you're a great buddy! I’d like to say we’ve become close friends but.. I just can’t do a lot of things with other people that I can do with him.. Ya know, no one really wants to wrestle anymore and no one wants to watch hours of movies with me! It all kinda feels lonely..”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, I understand. John kinda.. Went reclusive for a while and it drove me nuts. I missed the fuck outta him. I felt like I was going insane or I was in grieving or something. It’s just.. Hard having to see your best friend and feeling like you weren’t allowed to interact with them. Then he started coming out of his house more but he didn’t talk with me. He always talked with Jade or someone else and never me. It made me pissed. I just didn’t understand why he didn’t try to talk to me so I kinda… Reclused a bit myself. I'm sure you remember that shit.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh yes! Dirk drove himself in circles trying to figure out why you weren’t letting anyone come over!” Jake stated, proud he remembered. “Everyone thought you had gone insane or perma died after week three. You were just a big social bug then you kinda stopped.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, well, I think I was trying to get John's attention which was just.. Stupid. I dug myself into such a big depression hole that it felt impossible to get out until he literally obliterated my door and we yelled at each other for four hours. Nearly fuckin’ leveled the whole planet. Uh, why was I telling you all of this?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You were trying to relate to how I miss Dirk!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, right, shit, uh, I dunno. I think y’all might need to suck it up and talk it out unless you wanna end up in a huge god fight.” Dave advised, pulling a small bone out of an owl pellet.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t think any god fight of ours would be nearly half as violent as yours and Johns! Our aspects aren’t that.. Physical.” Jake pouted, seemingly disappointed that he couldn’t do flashy, cool things.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You should be glad your aspect doesn’t affect you that much. I nearly fuckin’ turned my entire house to dust when… uh….” Dave trailed off, his face flushing, not wanting to tell Jake about his alone time with Karkat. “When things happened. Yeah.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I'm afraid I don’t understand, chum!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t think about it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay!” Jake chirped and continued to search for bones, smiling and humming as he did so. Dave was pretty sure he was humming a Disney song but decided against asking, not wanting Jake to try and explain the entire plot to something he’s already seen again. Dave was pretty sure Jake didn’t even know why he talked so much about movies. Probably clinged to them for a sense of community and understanding. Gross, that was way too insightful for his tastes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So, English, do anything cool lately?” He asked, wanting to fill the silence. Well, it wasn’t silent, the frogs were singing and the leaves were rustling.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh! Well, besides this, I've been doing a lot of reading! The comics here are so good! I've also been trying to figure out my aspect with Rose and Jade but I don’t think they really care that much.. But, I've also been hanging around with Jane and having lunch with her almost everyday which is fun but I kinda wish she’d stop asking me so many unnecessary questions and fretting over me all the time. John and I also have lots of fun just hanging out! He very much enjoys wandering the city with me and finding all these cool shops! I've been having movie nights with Roxy as well, which is very fun! I’m having a lot of fun. What about you, bud? I hear you’ve been spending a lot of time with your bud Karkat!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, uh, yeah. Hanging out with him and stuff. I’ve been just kinda dicking around, I guess. I like going out to secluded places like this and just hanging. Nothing really big I guess.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hm. Maybe I can start taking you to lunch with me and Jane! I’m sure she’d be just tickled pink to hear about you joining us!” Jake suggested, tossing a bone into their little wagon.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uhhh…” Dave trailed off, feeling a familiar anxiety wash over him. He thought Jake and Jane were cool but.. His bisexual heart would not be able to handle being around them. He also hated Janes.. Meddling. “Maybe, I dunno.” He mumbled, not wanting to commit to anything yet.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, just one lunch? Then I’ll stop bothering you, swear it!” Jake promised, holding his hand up in some sort of weird boy scout pose. A piece of mud hit the tree behind him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh, okay…” He mumbled, frowning. How did Jake convince him to do this shit so easily? Maybe that's why Dirks has been avoiding him.. Wait, Dirk! That's his escape ticket. “Hell, lets bring Dirk. Why not have both Striders for a one night only experience?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, that sounds just smashing! Say, could you ask him for me? I don’t think he’ll agree if I ask..”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, no problem.” Dave assured, already going through a mental list on how to bribe Dirk into coming. Maybe a new set of needles or some good felt..</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Splendid! You’ve always been such a good pal!” Jake cheered, hitting Daves back as a sign of comradery or something, getting mud all over his shirt.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>All of this trouble just for some fucking bones.</span>
</p>
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